Interfacing conundrum

Do you ever hem and haw indefinitely about what interfacing to use for a project? I’ll confess I usually don’t. I test scraps and decide on the support that I want. Fast decision based on results. Except when I sew with silk.

I interfaced my BLTN blouse with silk organza. The satin silk chiffon I used for the blouse didn’t need a crisp amount of support, so the silk organza worked wonderfully. I like how it made for clean crisp buttonholes. It provides adequate support for the buttons.

I used a double layer of organza in the front facing, extending only to the CF of the facing. I used the same double layer of organza in the collar stand and the collar.

The second layer of organza is stitched to the first down the centre front of each piece.

Each interfacing piece was stitched right sides together with the facings, turned, understitched and pressed. This provided a really nice finish for the inside of the blouse.

What to use for this project was a bit of a conundrum for me. I confess I have this heebie-jeebie thing about fusing unknown gluey kinds of products to silk. I know interfacings are all good and dandy and so much improved from what they used to be eons ago. I also know that fusibles are the most popular interfacings out there.

But I just can’t bring myself to heat up glue to attach interfacing fabric to silk for some unknown reason. I think I’m afraid it will eventually ruin the silk. I mean, what exactly is in the glue, anyway? Is it silk-friendly? So I inevitably create a lot more work when I have a silk project on the go, because I will always use a sew-in interfacing.

Does anyone else have this problem hesitation to fuse silk? And if you don’t could you please share your experience and reasons with me?

Good question… usually I don’t have a problem using fusibles because I get some pretty nice ones locally. But I haven’t had to choose one for silk yet and silk organza here is incredibly expensive so I’d have to source it elsewhere if I were to use it.

I hear you. I’m hesitant about fusing stuff to silk and other delicate too. I just heed to find an inexpensive way to buy silk organza here in Australia. Poly organza works, but it just doesn’t seem right…

Glad to read about your interfacing-conundrum and your use of silk organza. I’ve never been one for fusible interfacings and love using silk organza as an interlining, instead of fusibles. However, I’ve been making cotton tailored shirts and use fusible interfacing on them, which is just fine. But now I want to make a tailored shirt out of hand-painted silk organza and I can’t bring myself to use fusible interfacing. I found a Calvin Klein shirt pattern. Fabric for the shirt is silk organza. Instead of using interfacing, fusible or otherwise, it called for cutting 2 upper collar pieces, 3 collar bands and 6 cuffs out of the silk organza. The extra pieces are used as interfacing. So that is what I plan to do.

I use a fusible, but a woven fusible, that won’t disintegrate. if it’s pre-qashed you should be able to get rid of the majority of the excess glue blobs that could show through the silk. You may need to research someone who sells a fine sheer polyester fusible, very light weight. That’s what I use for silk.

I don’t have a problem with using fusible interfacing on small parts of a garment e.g cuffs, buttonhole backing etc when the fashion fabric is silk. If I wanted to alter the drape of the fabric or face a large area I would sew in organza as it means the garment will wear and launder better. Also, I only use fusible on the inside piece of a two piece cuff and not the uppermost for a better finish.
I’ve noticed on older well worn garments the fusible degrades to a powdery substance and doesn’t interfere with the integrity of the fibre.But that’s just in my experience.